Our CEO, Nancy F. Clark, is an expert in developing Business and Happiness programs for companies and coaching for female executives. A respected authority for 15 years, Clark has been the featured speaker at the Pentagon, National Institutes of Health, as well as major corporations and universities. She along with her team bring you the latest information to help you in your career.

The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

The Surprising Activity That Helps You Reach Your Goals

One of our clients, Kevin, had a goal to complete a redesign of his website by the end of the third quarter. However, as a business owner, he never seemed to find the time to focus on it while juggling dozens of other responsibilities. “At the end of each day, it just falls off my to-do list because more urgent things pop up,” he told us.

As executive coaches, we work with highly successful people like Kevin who are usually quite good at getting things done and getting good results. But … sometimes these same clients find it hard to achieve their more strategic or longer-term goals due to day-to-day demands. Usually, they are missing just one ingredient. The following study gives a hint of the missing puzzle piece.

Would You Bet on Good Habits, Good Outcome, or Both?

See what your prediction is about the following. Psychologists Lien Pham and Shelley Taylor wanted to see what would help students get a good grade on an exam 5-7 days away. The researchers divided the students into three groups: habits, outcome, and both habits and outcome. Students received the instructions to visualize the good study habits that could lead to a good grade on the exam (habits), to visualize getting a good grade (outcome), or to visualize both the good study habits and the good grade (habits/outcome). Which group would you put money on as getting the best grades on the exam?

Students in the habits group did better on their exams than students in either the outcome or the habits/outcome group. What does this mean? When you have an important goal, sometimes you need to focus on the “good study habits” equivalent. What are your good productivity habits to push the project forward? What are your good planning habits to move a home renovation project forward? Why did habits outperform both outcome and habits/outcome? The researchers found that focusing on the good study habits decreases anxiety and increases planning, both of which helped the students achieve better grades.

Habits are the Missing Ingredient

We’ve been trained since we were children that goals tend to sound like this: “I’m going to run that race” or “I’m going to finish that project.” Rarely do we think of successful goals as sounding like this: “I’m going to exercise at the gym every day at 7:30am” or “This week, I’m going to block off the hour after lunch and close the door to my office to work only on this project.”

We asked Kevin a related question, “Kevin, what habits are you setting to get the web redesign done?”

“Habits? I put it on my to-do list,” he told us.

“Let’s get more specific,” we suggested, “How can you make working on your web redesign into a habit? For example, how can you work on this project in the same place and at the same time each day?”

He objected, “I’m not sure I need to turn this project into a habit.”

Emotional and Mental Benefits of Habits

Psychologist Wendy Wood and colleagues find that when people turn actions into habits, there is an emotional benefit: people feel less stressed. One of the problems with leaving an item on a to-do list is that by being on your list each time, it grows in mind share (and potentially, in the stress of not having completed it).

Let’s look at the mental side of the story. What if Kevin were to make small—really quite small—dents in the project? What if he made working on the redesign into a habit and spent 15 minutes on it every day right after lunch? When we are focused on short-term processes, then each time the process works well, it reinforces behavioral success-patterns. Thus, Kevin would also get a mental shot of mini-success.

Given the emotional component of less stress and the mental component of small wins, Kevin decided to try setting a habit.

He decided he would schedule a 3pm appointment with himself for 30 minutes each day (that’s the “same time” part of habits). As for the “same place,” he worked on this project in the conference room down the hall so he wouldn’t be interrupted.

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Habits in Action: Have you always wanted to write a book, but can’t seem to find the time while holding down a full-time job and family responsibilities? Do what my co-author, Senia Maymin, and I did: Create a writing HABIT! Same day, same time.

Many of us (myself included) have the best of intentions when we set a goal and develop a plan of action on how we are going to achieve that goal. What happens is that we start the process but before it becomes habit, we give up because we don’t see enough reward or reason to continue. We quit too soon. Then we are left feeling anxious and overwhelmed because we did not achieve what we set out to do. The remedy? Define the goal, make a plan and commit to that plan for a specific time period. No exceptions.

The worse kind of stress – the one that’s most damaging to our brain and health – is nagging unfinished tasks. Kevin’s website may look better now that he’s learned how to create new habits, but I’m ready to bet that his health profile was improved even more. (And yes, the skill and technique is transferable to creating new health habits too!)

This makes so much sense – to add a habit instead of trying hard to break one. I have an executive client that took on trying to take three positive comments to his co-workers each day as a habit, to shift his critical tendencies and moreso boost his own mindset. It is not is not always easy, but there is a noticeable benefit.

Great example Jill of how coaches can help clients cultivate habits that can have a profound , positive impact on the workplace. Thank you for sharing a practical application from your own coaching experience.

John, I agree, sometimes people give-up or quit too soon and then are left feeling anxious, etc. Besides defining the goal and making a plan/creating habits and sticking to it, here’s another remedy:

Take on a “leaner” mindset (aka – “Growth” mindset per Stanford professor Carol Dweck’s work). Rather than quitting, we need to quit trying to be an expert. When we take on a “learner” mindset, we are more willing to accept bigger challenges, have less fear of failing, and persevere even when we fail short.